Koran Kalashnikov and Laptop

The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007

Antonio Giustozzi

Shows how the present-day Neo-Taliban insurgency has been in evidence since 2003

One of Hurst's bestsellers

Author has spent more than a decade visiting, researching and writing on Afghanistan

Koran Kalashnikov and Laptop

The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007

Antonio Giustozzi

Description

Announcements of an impending victory over the Taliban have been repeated ad nauseam since the Allied invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, particularly after the Presidential elections of 2004, which were said to have marked the "moral and psychological defeat of the Taliban". In moments of triumphalism, some commentators claimed that "reconstruction and development" had won over the population, despite much criticism of the meagre distribution of aid, the lack of "nation-building" and corruption among Kabul's élite. In March 2006, both Afghan and American officials were still claiming, just before a series of particularly ferocious clashes, that "the Taliban are no longer able to fight large battles". Later that year, the mood in the mass media had turned to one of
defeatism, even of impending catastrophe. In reality, as early as 2003-5 there was a growing body of evidence that cast doubt on the official interpretation of the conflict. Rather than there having been a "2006 surprise", Giustozzi argues that the Neo-Taliban insurgency had put down strong roots in Afghanistan as early as 2003, a phenomenon he investigates in this timely and thought-provoking book.

Koran Kalashnikov and Laptop

The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007

Antonio Giustozzi

Table of Contents

Introduction1 Sources of the insurgency 2 How and why the Taliban recruited 3 Organisation of the Taliban 4 The Taliban's strategy 5 Military tactics of the insurgency6 The counter-insurgency effort Conclusion

Koran Kalashnikov and Laptop

The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007

Antonio Giustozzi

Author Information

Antonio Giustozzi is a Research Fellow at IDEAS, London School of Economics.

Koran Kalashnikov and Laptop

The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007

Antonio Giustozzi

Reviews and Awards

"This detailed study . . . chronicles the rise of what Giustozzi labels 'the neo-Taliban'. Separate chapters treat how and why the neo-Taliban were recruited, their organization, their tactics and strategy, and the counterinsurgency efforts of the Afghan government and its outside supporters. With copious cross-referencing, he works in such subjects as the continued involvement of Pakistan, the drug trade, neo-Taliban relations with Al Qaeda, and the rural-versus-urban dimension of this struggle. There are also several perceptive comparisons with insurgencies elsewhere in the world. [Giustozzi] concludes that reining in the neo-Taliban by arms or diplomacy will be more difficult now than reining in the original was five years ago. He also sees the group's strategy as
having shifted in its new form from national resistance to global jihad."--Foreign Affairs